SB 1.3 - Kṛṣṇa, the summum bonum

Submitted by Radhikesh on Wed, 2011-07-06 10:18

Lord Kṛṣṇa is the source of all incarnations. All the symptoms of the Supreme Truth in full are present in the person of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and in Bhagavad gītā the Lord emphatically declares that there is no truth greater than Him. The word svayam is particularly mentioned here to confirm that Kṛṣṇa has no other source than Himself, and it signifies the supremacy as the summum bonum. Kṛṣṇa is one without a second. He has expanded Himself as svayam-rūpa, svayam-prakāśa, tad-ekātmā, prābhava, vaibhava, vilāsa, avatāra, āveśa and jīvas, all provided with innumerable energies just suitable to the respective personalities.

The summum bonum has 64 principal attributes. All the expansions or categories of the Lord possess only some percentages of these attributes. Kṛṣṇa is the possessor of these attributes cent percent. And His personal expansions up to the categories of the avatāras who are all viṣṇu-tattva, possess up to 93 percent of these attributes. Lord Śiva, who is neither avatāra nor āveśa, nor in between them, possesses almost 84 percent of the attributes. But the jīvas possess up to 78 percent of the attributes. In the conditioned state, the living being possesses these attributes in very minute quantity, varying in terms of the pious life of the living being. Brahmā, the most perfect of living beings, has these 78 percent of the attributes in full. The perfection of a human being is to develop these attributes up to 78 percent in full. A living being can never become God, but can become a Brahmā in due course of time. By developing 78 percent of the attributes in fullness, a living being can enter the planet of Kṛṣṇaloka, which stands above all spiritual planets.